Evening all, not sure if this is the best place but here goes, I think I'm just after some opinions and maybe advice I don't know really. Perhaps even just an outlet and some confirmation that things are normal.
My wife and I have a beautiful 8 month old baby boy. He's a really good baby, and in a lot of ways we really couldn't be much luckier. He sleeps well overnight and has done from about 3 months old, however he's been teething for a few months already and can be quite hard to keep happy due to this.
I don't feel that he's any more difficult than a baby should be really, however my wife is struggling with the crying and unhappiness and has started talking about how she feels that he's going to be a handful and will grow up to be strong minded and difficult, and generally getting herself stressed about things. To my mind he's just a baby teething and is quite needy at the moment, I don't feel that he's showing any difficult traits or in fact anything out of the ordinary for what I would expect.
Some relevant background here is that my wife has had some mental health issues in the past and was previously on anti-depressants, however came off these before we started trying for a baby and has been fine since. I think I'm concerned that this current stress could cause a relapse, but I'm also mindful that having a new baby is about as stressful as it gets, so it's perfectly normal and rational to be stressed out, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a warning sign.
Most recently she's been talking about struggling with his crying and the stress making her shout at him at times, which she doesn't want to do but acknowledges she has. We have a good relationship and I feel we communicate well with each other so I'm happy that she's talking to me about this rather than trying to manage it herself, but I think what I'm having a hard time working out (as it's my first time as a parent also) is whether what she's going through is normal and reasonable, or whether I need to be suggesting other options like going back to see a GP.
I really don't underestimate just how hard it is to look after a newborn baby, and we're doing the majority of ourselves without much family support. Whilst she did the first 4 months of maternity leave, we discussed the situation and I was able to reduce my hours at work and take some shared paternity leave, so she has been able to go back to work part-time, which I was hoping would give her another focus and some breathing space away from just having to look after our son while I work. As it stands we're splitting time with him pretty much 50/50, and whilst this made a difference or seemed to initially, her stress levels seem to be mounting again.
Apologies for the lengthy post, if anyone has any words of wisdom I'd be grateful. I think I've covered the important information but feel free to ask any questions if you feel I've missed anything.